404 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 



to speak of those of Britain. We neglected them for two reasons : 

 first, because the London school, which we select as the best repre- 

 sentative, has never yet deserved to be classed with those of the 

 Continent ; and, secondly, because it has been especially quoted as a 

 favorable example of the "subscription plan" for the support of 

 such schools. 



In Britain we find directly opposite conditions to those of the 

 Continent. Here we find the Government strangely blind to the 

 interests and welfare of the people. America, the child, nobly fol- 

 lows the ignoble example of the mother. Britain has allowed her 

 noted and valuable flocks and herds to be repeatedly decimated by 

 pests without taking a single step to educate properly qualified vet- 

 erinarians. Here we find no state responsibility ; no state regulating 

 the standard of education at the schools ; no critical selection of 

 teachers ; no contribution to their support, by means of which the 

 discovery and improvement of methods for checking and preventing 

 the ravages of animal pests may be hoped for. 



Being myself so bitter an opponent of both private and even 

 state schools for the education of veterinarians, it may appear fairer 

 for me to let a less partial judge speak for me on these matters. 



Mr. George Fleming says : * "It was not, however, until 1792 

 that England had a veterinary school [established by Saint-Bell, a 

 Frenchman], but this was of a private and speculative character ; 

 deriving no benefit from the state [and conferring none upon it], but 

 allowed to push its own way from the fluctuating support or patron- 

 age of private subscribers and the fees of students." This school 

 succeeds, at present, in the American sense — it pays. The director 

 and some of the leading teachers — they call themselves professors, 

 without ever having done anything worthy of the name — enjoy fat 

 salaries, in return for which they energetically oppose every sugges- 

 tion for improvements which could only be to the advantage of the 

 Government and the people. 



It is probably unknown to most of the readers of this book that 

 certain representative gentlemen of Pennsylvania, or, more correctly 

 expressed, Philadelphia, as well as the authorities of Harvard Uni- 

 versity in Massachusetts, have lately displayed quite an active zeal 

 in the cause of veterinary medicine. It would have been better for 

 them, better for their States, infinitely better for the whole country, 

 had they taken greater care to acquaint themselves with the history 

 of veterinary medicine and its results in other countries than Eng- 

 land, before giving to the public " An Appeal to the Citizens of 



* "Animal Plagues," p. 176. 



